Welcome
Starkey & Associates Inc. is the name behind a number of the most successful grinding circuit designs in the mining industry today. We are proud to offer grinding circuit designs that can achieve target throughput and grind from day one. Our projects span the globe from Australia, Finland and Russia in the East, to Peru, Chile, Canada and the United States in the West. Twelve well known testing laboratories in these countries work with us to provide SAGDesign testing services.
John Starkey, P. Eng. has worked in SAG mill hardness testing since 1964 where he worked as pilot plant engineer for A. MacPherson’s projects. He invented the SPI and SAGDesign tests. The latter is now acknowledged by our clients to be a world-class method for grinding circuit design, and is accepted by our peers as a standard for ore hardness testing. SAGDesign testing provides SAG pinion energy grindability in kWh/t to within +/- 5% from 152 to 1.7 mm, and Bond Ball Mill Work Index on SAG ground ore, from the SAG test on the same sample.
Starkey & Associates uses the patented SAGDesign technology to calculate accurate mill sizes from measurements on a client’s own ore samples. SAGDesign technology has become a standard for 21st century grinding circuit design for the following reasons:
- Precisely measures SAG and ball mill ore hardness
- Fewer samples needed because composite samples are taken
- Testing costs minimized
- Assured accuracy because measurements of kWh/t are linear
- Grinding mill procurement timelines minimized and
- Profits confidently realized; grinding production targets consistently met from start-up.
We also provide outstanding process engineering services to develop customized grinding circuit designs in a timely manner. Mining companies of all sizes who require fast project execution and accurate mill design results, have come to count on our proven track record. Our benchmarking accuracy and comminution problem solving is unparalleled in the mining industry because of our experience with gathering and using production data from site visits to many SAG and AG mill process plants.
In 2013 and 2014 Starkey & Associates introduced new geometallurgical grindability testing in the form of SAG Variability Testing and Bond Variability Testing. These geomet results can be used to assist in the prediction of grinding circuit throughput.
Let us design your next grinding circuit and assist in developing the full potential of your mining project by matching new grinding mills to your ore body and production plans.